Hunger Games sequel delivers

Movie review  Catching Fire shows trilogy has plenty of fuel to burn

There are few more enviable tasks than making a film based on best-selling young-adult book series. The intended audience is already well-defined and established, so theres really not much the filmmakers need do in order to make a mint.

And, if precedence counts for anything (a certain vampiric/werewolf love story that shall remain nameless), the makers of such films dont generally do very much beyond transposing the books dialogue into a screenplay and casting the heart-throbbiest of young actors to play their leading men and ladies.

In such a climate, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a welcome breath of fresh air. Not to say that the film  the second entry in a planned trilogy, based on the Suzanne Collins series of the same name  breaks dramatically from its source material. It is as faithful as any fan of the book could hope, and anyone else could reasonably expect.

However, unlike in other adaptations  where the special effects, score and, especially, the acting and direction  feel more like vague afterthoughts shoehorned onto a story that was perfectly suited to print, these same elements serve to enrich and breathe life into the tale Catching Fire weaves.

The sequel follows the events of the first film, wherein Katniss Everdean (played by the extremely talented Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) came out the victors in the Hunger Games  in direct defiance of the nigh-omnipotent Capitol sponsors of the annual bloodbath.

Catching Fire sees the resulting aftermath create a spark of rebellion in the Districts (the rough equivalent of states in this post-apocalyptic world) that the Capitol rules, followed by Katniss and Peetas return to a new, even more dangerous incarnation of the Games at the behest of the sinister President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

The real kudos for the success of Catching Fire go to its ensemble cast, led by Lawrence, but also featuring the talents of Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Liam Hemsworth and Elizabeth Banks. They lend to the story a truly surprising emotional depth  so much so that viewers are likely to even forget how silly their characters names are. Bookended by well-rendered action sequences, the dialogue and the cast force viewers to confront the deeper themes encapsulated within the story.

The films biggest weakness is its extended runtime. Probably an unavoidable flaw, being based on a novel with such a large and devoted fan base, but a noticeable one, such that by the time the characters actually enter the arena of the films titular Games, one feels as though hes already watched an entire movie.

All told, Catching Fire improves upon the ground tread by its predecessor, delivering on what it promises and blowing away any low expectations in the process. Hunger Games fans will love it, and even those unfamiliar with or apathetic toward the series should have no trouble stomaching it.